A solar wind stream flowing from this southern coronal hole could brush against Earth's magnetic field on April 7th. Credit: SDO/AIA.

SPACE WEATHERNOAA Forecasts

Updated at: 2012 Apr 05 2200 UTC

FLARE

0-24 hr

24-48 hr

CLASS M

05 %

05 %

CLASS X

01 %

01 %

Geomagnetic Storms:Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm

Updated at: 2012 Apr 05 2200 UTC

Mid-latitudes

0-24 hr

24-48 hr

ACTIVE

10 %

05 %

MINOR

01 %

01 %

SEVERE

01 %

01 %

High latitudes

0-24 hr

24-48 hr

ACTIVE

20 %

15 %

MINOR

25 %

15 %

SEVERE

10 %

05 %

Thursday, Apr. 5, 2012

What's up in space

Metallic photos of the sun by renowned photographer Greg Piepol bring together the best of art and science. Buy one or a whole set. They make a stellar gift.

AURORA WATCH: A CME expected to reach Earth on April 4th is overdue. The cloud might have missed or maybe it's running late. Mindful of a possible impact, NOAA forecasters estimate a 15% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on April 5th. Aurora alerts:text, phone.

With the arrival of Spring, Arctic nights are growing shorter. "Soon, aurora season will be coming to an end," says Norwegian photographer Thorbjørn Riise Haagensen. "But it's not over yet." Last night Haagensen photographed this scene over Hillesøy, Norway:

"Beginning in the middle of May, the midnight sun brings sunshine all night long," he says. "Already some daylight is visible at the horizon at midnight. There is still enough darkness, though, for the last dance of the auroras."

HEAVENLY DEJA VU: At first glance, the picture below looks exactly like thousands of others taken this week as Venus passed through the Pleaides star cluster. Look again. The date in the corner says "April 1972." Richard Keen of Boulder, Colorado, took the picture 40 years ago:

Talk about deja vu!

"Thanks to its orbit, Venus' appearance in the sky repeats itself almost exactly every 8 years," explains Keen. "Forty years ago, on April 2, 1972, Venus passed by the Pleiades only half a degree from its position two days ago. It's fun to compare this photo I took back in 1972 with this week's wonderful images."

Venus is exiting the Pleiades now, but as Keen's snapshot shows, there will be a next time--eight years from now to be exact. The next Venus-Pleaides conjunction is due in April 2020. Until then....

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.